CM Paulius Juknis

Hello chess friends! I'm Paulius Juknis, a candidate master from Lithuania with over 2 decades of competitive chess experience and 6 years as a coach. My goal is simple: to help you consistently grow as a player and enjoy chess improvement process.
If you’d like to work together, feel free to reach me via message or email paulius.juknis@gmail.com

I've been actively playing OTB and online chess for over 20 years.
My FIDE elo rating is usually somewhere between 2150 to 2250.
I mainly participate in various blitz, rapid, classical OTB tournaments in my country, but couple times per year I go abroad to play in some strong classical tournaments.

One of my biggest achievements as a coach has been guiding a youngster for 4 years, helping him progress from a 1600 to a 2100 FIDE Elo rating. I'm coaching in person and online for 6+ years, working with players of all ages and levels — from enthusiastic beginners to ambitious improvers.
As a seasoned tournament player, I share practical, experience-based insights — focusing on what truly works in real games.
In September 2025, I began teaching chess to children in schools and also started working with chessed.me platform online. Through these experiences, I have developed strong skills in working with kids and introducing chess to beginners as well.

♟️ I teach chess to children in local schools, helping young players develop strong fundamentals and a love for the game.
🏛️ I also coach at Griunvaldas Chess Club in Kaunas, Lithuania, working with players of different ages and skill levels.
🎥 I run a YouTube channel, Witcher Chess, where I share educational lessons, practical tips, and game analysis. Feel free to check it out to get a sense of my teaching style: www.youtube.com/@witcherchess
🌐 You can also find me on Chess.com, where I regularly play and stay active in the chess community: www.chess.com/member/Witch3rChess

Over the years, I’ve built an extensive library of chess books, courses, training materials, PGNs and databases, allowing me to tailor lessons to your playing strength and focus on the areas that will have the biggest impact on your improvement.
My greatest strength is opening preparation — I can help you build a practical, reliable repertoire that suits your playing style rather than simply memorizing moves.

For most improving players, however, I focus first on building strong fundamentals:

♟️ Tactical awareness & calculation
🎯 Pattern recognition
🏁 Essential endgames
🧠 Strategic & positional understanding
📈 Practical decision-making

How I Teach

Lessons are interactive and personalized. I use your own games to identify weaknesses and combine game analysis, targeted exercises, tactical puzzles, calculation training and practical games to address them.

My goal is to help you think independently, recognize patterns, calculate accurately and make better decisions over the board.

Every lesson is tailored to your goals, strengths, weaknesses, and playing level. A typical 1-hour session includes:

📚 Homework review – reinforce key patterns and concepts.
🎯 1 Focused training theme – from openings, tactics, strategy, middlegames, endgames, etc.
♟️ Interactive game analysis – learn from your games or master games and improve decision-making.

I use a structured, level-based approach:

🔰 0–500 Beginner: Chess rules, capture & defend, basic tactics, essential mates, opening principles.

🟢 500–1000 Casual: Tactics and calculation, defensive skills, basic endgames, strategy foundations, and a simple opening repertoire.

🔵 1000–1500 Amateur: Recognizing all tactical and mate patterns, improving calculation process, building up strategy and deeper opening understanding, studying master games and more advanced endgames.

🏆 1500+ Strong Amateur: Individualized training based on your strengths, weaknesses, goals, and playing style.

📈 Your training plan continuously evolves as you improve, keeping the focus on the areas that will have the greatest impact on your progress.